| Competition |
October 7, 2018
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| On this day, he was in a bar drinking alone at the counter. Without intention, he heard two guys next to him talking. They looked to be around his age. A: … just time consuming was nonsense. Last time, we played a board game that we bought at a one dollar shop. That was a disaster, although I won. B: Yeah. That didn't have any creativity. But this time's domino toppling should be good. A: Do you think so? Tanka poem had creativity. We needed some form and the theme 'clouds' was good. We had to observe the clouds closely. B: Yeah. My neck hurts even now. Remember the soccer penalty shoot-out. I miss the penalty-kick shoot-out challenge! A: Yeah, me too. Maybe we can do it again someday. Although he heard their long conversation, he still couldn't figure out what they were talking about. But, for some reason, at least he was curious about it. When his eyes met one of the guy's, he daringly asked, "Excuse me to interrupt but I suppose that you two are experts or maybe researchers of entertainment or something." The two guys looked at each other and  laughed. One of the guys said, "Experts? We are just avoiding to be bored. We are just two retired people. Do you want to know about our activities?" He nodded. The guy continued:They used to be coworkers and retired in the same year. They played chess and tennis every day, but soon after they became bored. One day they came up with the idea to always compete at something novel. They started to make a list. The guy showed a sheet of paper to him from the table, there were many things: Games: chess, shogi, Go, poker, Othello, board games, match building, paper plane (distance), spinning top (revolving time) ... Sports: ping pong, tennis, badminton, billiards, golf, archery, running, jumping, swimming, canoe, bowling, Frisbee throwing, soccer ball shooting, baseball ball throwing ... Others: Riddles (better answer), poems (better producer), tomato (more producer), cooking (tastier), painting, carving, knitting ... Some of them were crossed out. Maybe they were already done. The guy continued, "The list is endless because there are new type of games and sports that we will think of, for example bouldering or curling. We also can create anything, like a drone race." He showed his amazement and the guy continued, "Now we are planning domino toppling. If you are interested, why don't you join in?" "Really?" he asked. The other guy nodded. They started to explain about the schedule and the rules. On this day, a week after from their meeting, they gathered in a room of a city community center. There were three other people ~a young male clerk and two young female clerks of the center. They asked to watch the race because they had never seen it before. The rules were simple. The distance was 10 m long. The contestants could use any materials as a piece of domino toppling as long as it fell down naturally. Setting time was within 15 minutes. The person with the longest fall time wins. The following day of the meeting, he went to a one dollar shop to look for materials for domino toppling. He found a domino toppling set! They were 4.3 cm length, 1.9 cm width, 0.7 cm depth, wooden pieces. He also found a wooden block piece set (9.0 cm×3.0 cm×1.5 cm), and a plastic blocks set for the game called Genga (5.0 cm×1.6 cm×0.9 cm), and a similar game plastic blocks (5.0 cm×1.4 cm×1.0 cm, they were very light). He bought all of them. At home he started to experiment. He lined up the domino pieces first. It was two meters long. He held a stopwatch and measured the falling time. It was 3.04 seconds, if it was 10 m, it would be about 15 seconds or so. Then he lined up the same pieces this time, but with a shorter distance between each piece. From his assumption, it would be faster because the pieces would touch nearer parts. The result was 2.58 seconds. His assumption was correct. Next he set the lighter game pieces. He thought it would take more time because of less gravity. The result was 3.02 seconds, almost the same as the heavier pieces. Was weight not related? He tried the big wooden pieces. It was 2.88 seconds, a little bit faster. He looked around to find something bigger. He found CD cases. It was 3.02 seconds. He couldn't say whether the size was related or not. He continued his experiment ... On race day, after shaking a die, he was the first player. He started to line up the domino pieces. After he experimented more, he decided not to think about the size of the pieces, but to think about the distance between each piece. Domino pieces were better to set up because of being stable, he used 15 minutes to set all of the pieces, 250, precisely. The others were watching him set the pieces up excitedly. After one of the guys set his smart phone to video mode, the male clerk said ready go, and one of the female clerks toppled down the first piece. The dominos started to fall down. It took 16.77 seconds. It was not bad, he thought. The second contestant started to prepare. It was unique, 500 ml PET-bottles with some water in it. They were lined up upside down, on the cap side, one by one. He began to think that his way was too simple. They were experienced players. But the result was regrettable. After the clerk's call, when the fifth bottle fell down, it just gave a subtle hit to the next but the next bottle didn't fall over. The end. People got excited more. When the last contestant started to prepare, a bigger commotion sounded from the others. They were just some A4 papers that were folded into three parts. Then they were lined up one by one, standing upright. Looking down at the standing folded paper sheets, they looked like a line of triangular prisms. There were 50 pieces. There was a dead silence and with the clerk's starting call, the paper sheets started to fall down. It was like it was in a slow motion, their falling looked somehow graceful and elegant. When the last one fell down, the male clerk shouted, "27.32 seconds!" There was a big applause and it didn't stop for a while. He learned a lot from this race. Maybe he would need more creativity if he competed in the next competition. |
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*daring :大胆な
*novel :真新しい
*spinning top :コマ回し
*topple :倒す
*bouldering :ホルダリング
*curling :カーリング
*assumption :推測
*upside down on the cap side:キャップ側を下に逆さにする
*upright :まっすぐな